


Dawn

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Endgame, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Loss, do I even need to tag that with this game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-13 00:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10503042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: the night is longand the path is darklook to the skyfor one day soonthe dawn will comeThey are the ones who live to see it.





	

Ignis can feel the strength ebbing from his body. He can feel blood crawling against his skin, and he can feel supplies running low, and he can feel the vibrations from snarl and stagger of daemon. He feels his hands shake, and he feels his energy trickling into nothingness, and he feels both dread and determination. He will fight to his last breath.

He can feel when the earth changes.

He wants to say that it’s probably subtle, but it isn’t to him, or Prompto, or Gladio. He feels the earth change, and he hears the daemons hiss, and as their presence lessens, Ignis hears Prompto gasp.

Ignis doesn’t look at him. He looks up towards the sky instead.

He had told Noctis that he could sense light, and he can, and he  _ does _ , just then, head tilted towards the great expanse above. He can sense light, and he can feel it, warm on his face after what had felt like a lifetime of living in the cold. The darkness, he could handle. The cold, he had never entirely gotten used to.

On his right, Prompto drops his gun. And then falls to his hands and knees, if the four distinct thuds are anything to go by. “He did it.” He breathes in sharply, and the next breath comes out as a sob. “He did it.”

Ignis breathes in slowly, as his faint impression of light grows stronger. He imagines that he can hear the earth start to move for the first time in ten years. He imagines that his entire body feels warm, skin sun-kissed even though the position of light is too low; the sun is only just beginning to rise.

_ Dawn. _

Part of him wants to smile. It is overrun by the part that, like Prompto, wants to cry.

The earth is moving again, and Noctis will not be there to see it.

The fight leaves his body, then. The blades clatter to the ground and it takes all of his strength to crouch down next to Prompto, instead of collapse. He puts a hand on his back and goes to bended knee, turning away from the sunlight. 

He would take ten more years of darkness if it meant Noctis would come back again. But that is selfish. He does not say it.

“Of course he did,” he says instead. His voice is weak, just like the rest of him, but it doesn’t matter. “He’s our King.”

Gladio’s hand falls onto Prompto’s back, too. His fingers brush Ignis’s. Ignis wants to smile, but he cannot. Not right now. Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day, when the sun will rise again and it won’t be as raw, not as bittersweet. But not now.

Being proud and being devastated at the same time is a strange combination. It feels like rapture; it feels like ruin. He sweeps his hand against Prompto’s back and allows him to bury his face against his shoulder. Ignis turns his face into Prompto’s hair, and Gladio’s hand shifts to Ignis’s shoulder.

They will celebrate with the rest of the kingdom; he honours and respects Noct’s wishes. It is for the good of everyone, and he knows this. But for now they will mourn. Tomorrow, they will smile.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been hearing The Dawn Will Come in my head almost as much if not more than Stand By Me and I'm just fjiwo wrecked. 
> 
> So obviously I don't think the remaining chocobros died, like... I know it's a thread of discourse but I only got that vibe for literally half a second of heart shattering terror and then realised that Ardyn was just hallucinating. (If you play KH, that "my friends are my power" scene... A few people mentioned this and I'm so happy I'm not the only one who thought of it.) Besides, they survived that Impossible Fight when they sent Noct on to the Crystal and then survived for ten years in Eternal Night with daemons on just about every foot of the road.
> 
> Not to mention it's Square Enix if they were killing the rest of them I feel like they would have had flashes - if not focus - on each of them falling in battle in between Noct's death. SO they get to witness dawn. Hence this xD
> 
> I do not own _FFXV_ or _DAI_. Thanks for reading enjoy the pain


End file.
